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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo met with the media Monday for his weekly press conference to discuss his unit’s play in the win at Miami while looking ahead to Saturday’s game at Duke.
Among the questions Longo was asked focused on the 18-play drive that consumed 8:20 from the clock in the fourth quarter at Miami, philosophies about using more time and balancing also trying to score when in that situation, quarterback Drake Maye as a self-evaluator and ow he handles Maye when he makes a mistake, the run game, and more.
Above is video of Longo’s presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*The staff’s quest to pare down the running back room has indeed taken place, as Caleb Hood has emerged as the starter with Omarion Hampton as the primary backup. D.J. Jones played two snaps at Miami and George Pettaway did not get into the game.
Hood ran the ball 13 times for 74 yards and had five receptions for 50 yards, with three of the catches going for first downs.
“We were more efficient in the run game, and I thought Caleb’s performance gave us that aspect, it wasn’t just Drake Maye running the ball,” Longo said. “Caleb also gave us some yards and some huge plays catching the football.
“In order for Caleb to be an every down starter or to separate himself as one of our top two guys, he’s got to stay healthy. He came out of the game a couple of times on Saturday, nothing major, and then he was back in a few plays later.
“But is only issue here has not been performance, it’s been staying healthy. And I think the healthier he stays, the better he’ll get.”
*Now that Drake Maye has six games of tape for opponents to comb over, what are teams doing differently trying to defend him and slow him down?
“That’s a great question and it’s interesting, some people put a much higher premium on stopping a mobile quarterback,” Longo said. “(Miami) Coach (Mario) Cristobal brought up in two instances our draw play. So, it’s interesting to see the game when you finally get there and hear before and after what thoughts are in regards to trying to defend us.
“And that is the biggest reason we wanted to distribute the ball there. We want defenses to have to defend everybody, including our quarterback. What we’d like is for Drake to be the add-on weapon when they work their tail off from a numbers standpoint to match everybody and get them all covered.
“Or to add players to the box to stop the run game. And that’s when any mobile quarterback is as big a weapon as he can be is when people are over-selling on defending the passing game dropping eight or putting seven or eight in the box and you’re not accounting for the quarterback, so the quarterback has a chance to be a huge weapon at that point.
“We’ve seen other teams that spy Drake, teams that mirror Drake, teams that kind of hang one d-lineman at the line of scrimmage for the draw… The more we distribute the ball to our running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends, I think the less they can pay attention to Drake Maye.”
*Duke has a new coaching staff with longtime defensive coordinator Mike Elko taking over, and the difference in how the Blue Devils defend has been noticeable. Elko has recently been at Notre Dame and was the DC at Texas A&M when the Tar Heels faced them in the Orange Bowl two years ago.
Longo has coached against Elko several times in the past, as has offensive line coach Jack Bicknell. Longo discussed the Duke defense and how it’s different.
“Their defense is very similar,” Longo said, referring to the scheme A&M ran two years ago. “The talent base is different; they have different strengths at different positions than they did at A&M, but as cliched as it sounds, it is a very, very well-coached defense.
“Duke is not out of position a lot. It’s a bright team, they’re in position, they’re lined up, they make their checks. You motion and they handle it pretty well, you shift and they handle it pretty well. You do some things in and out of the box and they get into what they want to be in in that formation with either signals or checks or what not.
“They’ve got it down. They know what they’re doing out there, and the weaknesses that we’re tying to identify don’t come from a massive amount of missed assignments… And personally, after watching them today longer – I watched them yesterday and watched them longer this morning – I think they cover ground pretty well.”
Longo also added, “They play really hard, and I’d say probably harder than we’d seen them in the past.”
Note: Much of what Longo discussed today will be featured in other content items this week.
